


The future is warm (If you reach out and touch it)

by Quente



Category: Free!
Genre: Background Makoto/Kisumi relationship, Diving into the future is hard, Especially if you miss the past, Is it love or is it swimming?, M/M, Rin and Makoto are friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 07:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19988041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quente/pseuds/Quente
Summary: Every day Rin woke up to a morning message. Sometimes it was simply forlorn, likeI can’t find a market with mackerel that tastes like Iwatobi mackerel.Sometimes it was poetic, like,I can’t forget your expression after we won the relay together.The forlorn ones, Rin actually paused to try to fix. The poetic ones, Rin still had no good answer for, exceptWhy are you saying such embarrassing things, idiot!It didn’t stem the tide of messages.





	The future is warm (If you reach out and touch it)

**Author's Note:**

> All my love to KyoAni for giving us this beautiful fandom. My thanks do not have an end, and I always keep in mind their amazing artistry and gentle touch. Forever KyoAni!

The text message was from an unknown number, and lay in wait on Rin’s phone when he woke up that morning. Blinking sleepily down at his phone with earbuds in his hand, Rin read the words but didn’t quite understand them.

_There’s no moss anywhere. Nothing to catch the moisture when it rains. It’s all bare concrete, and it doesn’t feel the same when I walk on it._

What the heck, Rin thought to himself in that sleepy moment before reality set in. Moss? Rain? Concrete?

Oh.

_Haru? Did you change your number?_

_Yes. Old phone was in my pocket when I fell into a canal._

Rin put his hand over his face. “Fell, huh,” he muttered. Anyway, it was time to get up and run.

~

Rin liked Australians. They reminded him of his mother and sister -- warm-hearted, supportive, communicative, and always interested in and involved in his life. It was, honestly, one of the things that kept him coming back to Sydney.

One of his teammates held out a towel for him as he pulled himself out of the water, giving him a friendly smile. “Nice job today, Rin,” Thomas said, the wide vowels making Rin’s name sound more like REAN. 

“You too, Thomas. I saw you set a new personal best for butterfly.”

They headed toward the locker room together. It wasn’t Japan, but it was fine.

~

Sitting in the bathtub of his apartment, Haru still felt the strange sense of disconnect that had been lingering in him since moving. Growing up, his small town had closed around him like a family, keeping him from feeling lonely just by its sheer inability to stay out of his life.

The smell of his house’s wooden floors, the sound of rain pattering beyond the sliding door to the veranda, the moss on each of the steps leading to his house -- those were as good as parents to him, in the days when his parents were far away. In Iwatobi, Haru rarely felt alone. 

In Tokyo, the only time he really felt at home was when he was fully immersed in water. Now, there was a strange anxiety inside of Haru that he couldn’t settle, no matter how much time he spent in a pool.

Eyes slowly opening to see the little dolphin toy gently floating in the cool water of his bathtub, he thought of Makoto. Nah, Makoto would worry too much. But there was also Rin.

Rin would know, wouldn’t he? He’d been living on his own for years, far from Iwatobi and home. The best thing to do would be to text him again.

Sitting up, Haru climbed out of the bathtub and dried off, sliding an apron over his jammers before reaching for his phone. 

_Rin. What do you miss about home?_

~

Rin finished toweling his hair and pulled it back into a small ponytail. Then he saw his phone blink, and picked it up -- another message. 

He frowned. It was rare for Haru to text him so often. Rin thought of the other thing that kept him coming back to Australia: the beautiful expanse of the ocean, and the reminder of what lay on the other side of it.

_I try not to think about it. But whenever I feel homesick I go to the ocean and think about how it connects us. Remember?_

~

Haru glanced at the text. He did remember, but it didn’t answer how, exactly, Rin stopped being homesick.

Haru put mackerel on the grill, feeling once again relieved that he’d held out to find an apartment old-fashioned enough to provide him with a gas stove. At least there was that.

He considered his reply. When he’d flipped the fish on the grill, he picked up his phone.

_What if you couldn’t see the ocean?_

~

Walking toward his apartment, Rin caught his bottom lip in his teeth, feeling increasingly worried. What was making Haru so emo? It couldn’t be himself -- their friendship felt warmer than it had ever been. And Rin hadn’t gotten any vaguely ominous messages lately from Makoto or any of the other spies that helped him keep track of Haru.

It was rare they texted like this, of anything that wasn’t swimming.

_If I can’t see the ocean, I just keep my goal in mind and tried to forget the loneliness._

~

Goals. Haru brought his plate of mackerel to the table, lining his phone up beside it. He should have known Rin would give him this kind of response. Unlike anyone else he’d known, Rin was the most forthright about his goals, strong enough to pursue them no matter what.

_What if I don’t have that kind of goal --_

Haru typed, and then thought better of it. He’d get no end of misguided concern if he once again admitted that simply competing with the people near him wasn’t enough. Everyone he knew, from his new coach Ryuuji to childhood friends to random people he’d just met (like that Hiyori Tono guy), had opinions about what he should care about.

_What if I don’t know why I feel strange --_

That wasn’t quite true, and Haru deleted his words again. If it was just missing home, Haru could go back there. But that didn’t change the fact that some of the things that reminded Haru of home weren’t there any more. Or, perhaps the better thing to say was, 

_What if home doesn’t feel like home any longer?_

~

Okay, that was enough texting. 

Rin was back in his apartment, fetching eggs out of his fridge. He hit call, putting the phone on speaker.

“Ah, Rin.”

“What is it exactly that you mean? I’m getting worried about you, Haru.”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking.”

Haru’s voice sounded faintly troubled, so Rin sighed, cranking up the heat under his frying pan.

“So you’re homesick, but home no longer really exists -- because everything is different?”

There was silence for a moment. Then, “Maybe.”

“I think I understand. Part of why it was easy for me to go to Australia as a kid was because home wasn’t the same after dad’s drowning. I felt like, if home was no longer home, I might as well go somewhere else and have that be home.”

More silence. Then a hint of a sigh. “Brave.”

“Eh?” Rin paused his cooking. “Did you say, brave?”

“Yes. Braver than me. I couldn’t move away from Japan.”

“Nobody’s asking you to --?”

Rin was getting even more confused as they talked. What was Haru missing that was no longer in Japan?

Wait, oh.

“You miss swimming with me,” Rin said, feeling the light dawning, “And that’s got you upset.”

More silence, and then a quiet, grumpy noise that Rin interpreted as a yes.

Rin sat down in a chair, staring out the window of his flat, pressing his fingers to his cheeks that were suddenly warm.

“Why’d you make me call you for something as simple as that?”

More silence. “Sorry to trouble you.” Haru’s tone was grumpy again, and Rin laughed, covering his whole face with his hand.

“No, it’s -- just easy to fix. I’ll be home for the All-Japan Invitational.”

“I’ll be at an invitational camp then.”

Rin rolled his eyes. “I’ll see you at the meet anyway, idiot,” he said.

Because if swimming was the issue, there, fixed.

~

_Whenever I ran home along the harbor road I thought of you._

That was Rin’s morning message the next day. He narrowed his eyes sleepily and typed out,

_Aren’t you an hour earlier there? Do you stay up late and think up this stuff, or get up extra early?_

Then his morning routine began and it wasn’t until he pulled on his shoes that he thought to look for the reply.

_Late. Having trouble sleeping._

Rin clicked his tongue. Jeez, Haru was high maintenance this week.

_Makoto can’t help?_

_I’m not thinking of Makoto._

Oh. For some reason, and Rin didn’t know why, his cheeks flushed again. Haru was being stupid, that was it.

At the same time, Rin’s mind filled with an image of Haru, curled onto his side late at night with his phone out, pondering what to type to Rin. 

The thought caught at his heart in a way that was unexpected. Rin shook his head at himself -- he’d settled that desire, that unbearable urge to defeat Haru at swimming. Now that Haru was on the same page about competing, they could swim together as often as they wanted. Speaking of.

_If you keep staying up late your times will drop, and I won’t get to swim with you._

This time, there was a grumpy silence until Rin was home for dinner.

~

Haru stopped by Makoto’s workplace, bentos in hand, leaning against the doorframe and watching as Coach Tachibana stooped to show one of his students the proper arm shape for breast stroke.

Makoto looked absorbed, happy. Haru felt unreasonably annoyed. 

Was he the only one who felt like something was missing?

Makoto looked over at him and waved, expression so much like the dog Haru once owned (Haru had named that dog Mako on purpose) that he felt a bubble of reluctant amusement break through the lingering gloom.

Later, eating together on a bench outside the swimming school, Makoto glanced over at him.

“So, I got a text from Rin asking if you’re ok,” Makoto said. “Are you two fighting?” The “again” was implied.

Well, this at least felt like home, Makoto walking into Haru’s personal business like he had a right to be there. The problem was, Haru had asked Rin about it because Makoto would simply worry, and it was sometimes more troublesome than helpful.

Best to say it directly and get it out of the way, though. “I’ve been homesick. I asked Rin for advice about how to cope with it, since he has experience with being away from home, that’s all.”

Makoto’s expression shifted instantly into concern, exactly as Haru anticipated, so he held up a hand to forestall Makoto’s words. “No, there was nothing else you could have done -- I’ll just have to get used to it.”

Makoto’s expression relaxed then, and he smiled sideways at Haru. “It’s funny what you miss, isn’t it? I’m so busy during the day that I don’t have time to be homesick, but sometimes it hits all at once. I’ll miss Ran and Ren hopping on my back to welcome me home, or the smell of mom’s cooking. And sometimes I miss pulling you out of the bath in the morning, Haru-chan.”

“You still do that,” Haru grumbled, but he did feel better. 

The problem was, what Haru missed was much less concrete than just “home” or “swimming with someone.” 

“Do you mind picking up food for tonight, by the way? I think it’s your turn to cook at my place.”

~  
A few hours later, Haru opened the door to Makoto’s apartment. “I’ve got the fish,” he called in greeting, and then paused, noticing a pair of black and white sneakers also at the door.

There was a moment of silence, and then Makoto’s voice calling out to him, strangely loud.

“H-Haru! Ah, Kisumi is here too, for dinner.”

Haru glanced up into the room, and noticed that Makoto was pretending his hardest not to look caught, and Kisumi was scrubbing the back of his head in an embarrassed manner. 

So that was finally happening, was it? It had only taken from junior high until now for Makoto to give in.

“Kisumi. Hope you don’t mind mackerel,” Haru said, in as neutral a voice as he could manage. He saw Makoto sag in visible relief, as if he’d successfully hidden something, and Haru had to concentrate very hard on not snorting quietly in amusement.

“Hey, any food that’s not my own cooking, I’m grateful for. But I can help you chop,” Kisumi chuckled, and then unwound himself from the floor to help Haru prepare it.

“How’s basketball?” Haru asked, knowing it would kick off a conversation that he could listen to and ultimately ignore, while his brain worked on other things.

Haru pondered that it never surprised him when people’s love expressed itself in a different way from the norm. After all, Haru’s first love was a sinuous, graceful, bountiful...waterfall…

Caught in the memory, Haru’s chopping trailed off into stillness.

“Eh? Haru? You okay?” Kisumi asked, elbowing him.

“Ah, he and Rin have been chatting a lot lately,” Makoto responded. “Haru is probably thinking of that.”

Makoto could usually read his mind in an uncanny way, so Haru didn’t bother to correct him. In fact, there was probably a connection there. It reminded him of a dream he sometimes had, where Haru was in the middle of a desert and Rin was the only person who owned a pool.

Waterfalls. Romance. And Rin? 

That made Haru ponder something.

There was a lot left unsaid in his friendship with Rin. Maybe it was time to start expressing it.

~

_It’s like watching fireworks at a summer festival and realizing that summer is almost over._

“Jeez, Haru,” Rin muttered, eyes blinking at the light from his screen as he lay back in bed. Was this some kind of poem? He googled the phrase before he was properly awake, and realized it wasn’t a quote at all -- just the product of Haru’s brain.

_You made me text Makoto to ask if you were ok, you know. Stop being so emo. Go swim._

~

Haru’s mouth quirked a tiny bit to see Rin’s exasperated words. First thing in the morning, Rin was kind of cute.

 _The flame-colored fireworks always made me think of your hair_ , Haru sent, before he overthought it. Once again, it was nothing but the truth.

~

The blush hit the second Rin put down his breakfast sandwich and looked at his screen. Why was Haru saying stuff like this? Rin pressed his glass of milk against his forehead, then his cheeks, staring down at his phone. 

When had homesickness progressed to this kind of talk? But knowing Haru, it wasn’t intentionally...weird. Besides, they were both men, weren’t they?

_What are you saying, idiot!?_

In response, Rin got a link to a video for a song that had been popular the summer before.

“Fireworks blooming at night, disappearing quietly,” a woman sang, and Rin covered his face with both hands.

~

The song stayed in Rin’s head for the rest of the day, haunting his strokes as he swam.

“I still remember words carved on the sand behind you,” Rin hummed, abstractly, as he toweled off.

“Is that a Japanese song?” Thomas asked, smiling at him from where he sat in typical Western disregard for privacy, buck naked while drying his back.

Rin averted his eyes, trying not to compare their muscles. That way lay frustration. “Yeah. A friend reminded me of it this morning.”

“Girlfriend? Do you have one back at home?”

Rin felt himself blushing again, and quickly pulled on his shirt. “No, just a normal friend.”

Later, he texted Makoto again.

_Hey Makoto, hope you’re doing well. Has Haru spoken to you about being homesick?_

_Rin! Nice to hear from you so much lately. We had a short talk about it yesterday, but Haru is Haru and wouldn’t explain much. Honestly, I think he misses you but the idea of it is bound up in a lot of unnecessary thoughts. You’ll be here soon, right?_

_Yeah, we should meet. Haru says he’ll be too busy to hang out with me before the invitational._

_OMG Rin, if Haru isn’t along with us we can actually GO TO AN AQUARIUM. Please come with me? It’s been so long, I can’t even tell you_

Rin shook his head. Poor Makoto, though, really.

_By the way, how did Haru manage to lose his old phone?_

_Ugh. I’ll tell you when I see you_

~

Weeks passed. Every day Rin would wake up to a morning message. Sometimes it was simply forlorn, like _I can’t find a market with mackerel that tastes like Iwatobi mackerel._ Sometimes it was poetic, like, _I can’t forget your expression after we won the relay together._

The forlorn ones, Rin actually paused to try to fix, googling things like “Iwatobi mackerel in Tokyo” and finding a market that bought the catches from one specific small country town. The poetic ones, Rin still had no good answer for except, _Why are you saying such embarrassing things, idiot!_

It didn’t stem the tide of messages, and Rin felt a sense of increasing closeness to Haru as a result. 

It was...nice. To wake up and find something like _I passed a florist today and saw a flower the same color as your eyes_ followed by a picture of a delicately drooping burgundy peony. It made Rin blush, but it also lodged an emotion somewhere deep inside of him, causing him to grip his phone hard in frustration. 

It wouldn’t do, to have something to miss that much.

It would make living far from home that much less bearable. Rin thought about telling Haru to stop, but every time he got one of those messages, he saw it for what it was -- a hand, from far away, reaching down into the water to help him out of it.

~

But one day, abruptly, the messages stopped.

~

Albert Volandel. That was the name of the foreigner who’d sucked the water away from Haru like he was his own kind of weatherfront. Climbing out of the pool after the “friendly” competition, Haru felt something he’d never felt before. 

He felt abandoned. If water was his home, he’d been hung out to dry.

Coach Ryuuji walked up to him after the match, out to where Haru sat alone on a bench staring into the air. Ryuuji looked gentle for a change.

“We’ll work on basics at the invitational camp,” Ryuuji said. “Whenever swimming feels like an issue, it’s good to get back to what makes it work.”

There was probably something smart in those words, but Haru knew that this wasn’t the problem. The problem was that nothing felt like home anymore, not even water.

There was really only one thing that felt like home, but he was too ashamed of his swimming to reach out and take it.

Haru had part of a solution, though. 

He’d fight. Hard enough to regain the right to swim beside Rin again.

~

_Haru, I’ve been getting so used to your weird late night thoughts that when you don’t send them I worry about you._

~

_Hey, it’s been a few days. Did your phone “accidentally” fall into a canal again?_

~

_Idiot, if you’re ignoring me don’t even THINK about asking me to google good mackerel markets in Tokyo ever again._

~

_Makoto, wtf is going on with Haru?_

_He hasn’t answered any of my texts either, Rin._

~

The weeks at camp were some of the hardest of Haru’s life. He’d never been in a swimming funk before, where it held more questions than answers, and the water felt like it was fighting to hold him back.

During the long nights, unable to sleep, he thought through the past months.

One night, it finally struck Haru that he’d known all along what it was he’d been missing. And slowly, he built a picture in his head of what he wanted his future to be.

The problem with living for competition was how fleeting it felt.

What if you wanted to wake up and swim with someone, and go to sleep knowing you’d swim with them the next day?

This was what Haru wanted. Now it was just a matter of finding the right way to ask for it.

And with that question answered, Haru’s times in the water finally, finally, improved.

~

They met outside of the aquarium.

Makoto looked good and his hug felt warm. They grinned at each other and shared a moment of bonding, best friends of a mutual best friend, and then Rin stepped back. He squinted, thinking -- couldn’t be. But no, he’d spotted a red mark on Makoto’s collarbone, hovering near the edge of his shirt collar. Was that...no. Wait, yes. Could it be?

“Someone’s growing up,” Rin said, smile curling sharply. “Is she anyone I know?”

Makoto hesitated, looking down, up, sideways. “I, ahh, it’s kind of embarrassing, Rin-chan. I didn’t think you’d notice quite so soon.” Makoto’s hand curled around his neck, and he dropped his gaze again. Makoto mumbled a name, and Rin leaned in. Then his eyes widened.

“Kisumi has a sister?”

“No. I’m...I’m seeing. I’m seeing him, actually. Kisumi.”

“Wow,” Rin said, and then put his hand up to his hair, feeling totally uncool. “No, I mean, I meant to say -- great.” … And his racing thoughts chimed in with, how could you possibly be gay, Makoto? And a second thought, chasing that one, Why shouldn’t Makoto be gay? And a third, Does Haru know?

“Does this have anything to do with Haru’s weird existential crisis? Why he keeps talking about missing things and being homesick and stuff?”

For a moment Makoto looked at him, forehead furrowing. Then he laughed. “No, I haven’t told him yet. But his issue is exactly what I said to you -- he misses you. Not me. I’m too much a part of his family for him to feel the need to miss me.” Makoto’s tone was slightly wry, and Rin understood. He was absolutely certain that sometimes, Makoto felt as though Haru took him for granted. The two were honestly just like brothers, but better family than Haru’s own had ever been to him.

Well, then. 

“Let’s go look at fish. Wait. Shigino won’t feel jealous, will he?” Because although it was just two friends meeting, aquariums were a place that people went to on dates, weren’t they?

Makoto looked blank for a second, and then laughed. “Ah, no, he knows about you and Haru.”

“Oh, ok.” Rin turned to enter the aquarium and then paused, the words clicking in place in his mind. “Wait. What?”

Makoto laughed again.

~

“So what you’re telling me is that you think that Haru and I -- that we --”

Makoto shrugged. “You’re the first person he talks to in the morning. The last person he thinks about at night.”

“What makes you think that I -- or Haru -- we -- are remotely interested in men?”

They spoke in hushed tones in the crowded cafe at the aquarium, and Rin was already trying to avoid the gaze of a curious young mother who was probably listening way too hard to what they were saying. Scarring her forever, probably.

“I wouldn’t say men,” Makoto said, as quietly as possible, his face just as red as Rin’s. “I’d say -- each other. With a side of open bodies of water, but that probably works out fine for both of you.”

“It’s impossible,” Rin said, but he felt the strange dawning of a realization inside of him. Could all that talk about the desire to swim with people possibly mean SOMETHING ELSE?

“Believe me, it’s possible,” Makoto said wryly. “Hey, you rented a car, right?”

~

A few hours later, Rin stood next to Haru in a small landscaped terrace beside the swimming facility in the mountains. The view was of a gentle slope down wooded flanks of the hill, under a sky full of soft white clouds. Rin tried to keep their chat sounding as natural as possible while letting a subprocess in his brain handle all the freaking out that he was still doing.

All those text messages and hints and words were -- if Rin had to characterize them -- romantic. Maybe?

Haru, for what it was worth, kept shooting him small, intense glances. He was as impenetrable as ever, though, and after some talk of swimming, it was hard to know what to say next.

But then, “You drove here, yes? Stay with me tonight.”

Haru’s words felt like a demand that Rin wanted to meet. “Okay. Let me tell Makoto that he’ll have to take the train back into town. Unless you want him here tonight too?”

Haru immediately shook his head. “I haven’t seen you lately. And I -- I want to swim with you.”

Swim, Rin thought. And blushed.

~

It was enough and somehow not enough at all to see Rin again. Rin slid back into Haru’s vision with bright smiles and warm eyes, slotting into the empty place where home used to go.

It ached to have him show up and heal Haru’s loneliness as easily as he did. Because Haru knew Rin would be heading back to Australia before long, and he’d be left as empty as he started.

Haru sighed.

They saw Makoto off at the train station, with Makoto looking back and forth between then like he was waiting to see something. When he didn’t see it, he simply gave Rin a small, private smile, and turned to go.

It was odd. Did it have something to do with his relationship with Kisumi?

Well. Whatever. It had nothing to do with Haru.

They turned too, walking back toward the facility. The day was cool and clear, and the sun felt warm on Haru’s dark hair.

“So...uh. What inspired all those texts?” Rin said finally, glancing at him sideways.

“That letter you sent me.”

Letter? “Eh?”

“Back in middle school. After you left for Australia for the first time. You sent a letter to Sousuke, but he gave it to me -- he said that you’d probably meant to send it to me and not him, and he could tell.”

“That -- no --” Damnit. Found out, after all this time. “Ugh, fine, I chickened out.”

“So I thought it was only fair to start telling you how I feel too.”

“Did you ever figure it out, why you’ve been feeling down?”

They were walking through a small park, and Haru spotted a concrete bench that circled a fountain. He was too mature nowadays to strip immediately at the sight of a body of water larger than a fishtank, but only just. He made up for it by trailing a hand into the water, just to greet it, feeling it curve around his flesh in a friendly caress.

“I realized that I miss a place, but I also miss a time,” Haru said. “I miss last year, when we could easily see each other and swim together. When I lived at home. When we’d run into each other at the swim shop. When I’d picked my university but we still had time to spend doing frivolous things.”

Haru paused. “Even seeing your life in Australia. I miss all of that.”

Rin looked troubled, his hair hiding his face, saying nothing.

“Rin, making you worry about me -- it was selfish of me. It’s something I know I have to work through on my --”

“No, I, ah.” Rin was blushing. “There’s something else.”

~

It was impossible, wasn’t it. How had Makoto done it, asking another man about feelings, about dating? Wasn’t it strange to take this mess of emotions that encompass how they felt about swimming and rivalry and each other and call it something like a crush?

Rin sat there, looking at the very normal day going on around them, wondering how he’d gotten to the point where he was thinking about even saying it.

Even Haru’s melancholy expression was starting to look intrigued, the same expression he got watching giant monster movies and preparing mackerel.

“I, ahhhh. Crap.” There was no way.

“Is it about Makoto and Kisumi?”

Rin blinked. “You knew?”

Haru’s expression was the slightest bit exasperated. “I’m not stupid. I can tell when I open the door of a room and two people suddenly jump apart.”

“Ah. So, uh, you don’t have...an issue with it?”

Haru regarded him steadily. “That’s not what you wanted to talk about, is it?”

Rin felt the words choke in his throat again. Somewhere between, “Were you flirting with me this whole time?” and “What kind of feelings do you really have, Haru?” but nothing came out of his mouth.

He made a vague gesture, holding up his phone.

“I missed it, when you stopped texting.”

Haru’s hand rose to close around Rin’s, where it rested on the phone. The grip was gentle, barely holding on.

“Rin. I figured out what I was missing.”

Rin felt the words like a shiver. He had never really let himself think about it -- he figured that when he wanted Haru back in his life, he’d crash in and take him. 

“Uh.” Rin couldn’t find words. Damnit, Haru was pushing him, this wasn’t the right timing, was it?

“I want a future where I can swim with you. I want to know that no matter what, someday, we can swim together again.”

The words were romantic. But. _Swim?_

“Haru.” Rin turned and looked at him, seeing the intensity in Haru’s eyes. “Are you...asking if I’ll come back to Japan to … swim with you?”

“I thought about your words, Rin.”

“Which...ones?” They’d been talking a lot, after all.

“That if someone I loved wasn’t living in the place I thought of as home, it didn’t matter where I lived.”

That silenced Rin completely. 

~

Haru realized he’d used the word love and mentally shrugged. 

It was true. Swim, love.

Same thing.

~

Rin turned his hand and took Haru’s in his, even though they were in public. It was extremely difficult not to cry, because the moment was perhaps the most romantic he’d had yet in his life.

Haru _loved_ him. And was willing to move to where he was, to be with him. What could he say to that?

Then Rin’s suspicion swelled. “This isn’t to get out of competing with me, right? You’ve got to keep competing here, in Japan. I won’t accept any less from you than competing against me on a national level --”

“I know,” Haru broke in calmly. “I just need more of a future than that. I need to know that when I feel satisfied with competing, I can … be wherever you are.”

It suddenly struck Haru that he was a lot more like his mother than he thought. She traveled to be with his father, after all. Maybe that kind of thing ran in the family.

~

There wasn’t a downside that Rin could see. His face was burning, though.

“You are incredible. How can you say all that with such a normal face?”

“I practiced in the mirror.”

“You did not.”

“I did.”

“Lies.”

Their faces were getting closer, and Rin felt his heart rate pick up. He was swimming a relay, in perfect sync, about to cry for Haru to dive in after him.

“We’re in public, Rin. I’m not going to kiss you here.”

Haru leaned back, and Rin saw his lip lift in the tiniest smirk.

“Anyway,” Rin said, taking a deep breath to compose himself. “I’m not going to answer you now, how could I?”

Haru simply looked at him, expression amused.

“I mean it! We’re too young to make those decisions, I don’t even know where I’ll be, so I can’t possibly ask you to move there.”

“If it’s just a matter of time, I’ll wear you down.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Haru looked at him again, his eyes so tender that Rin felt a shiver inside that he’d never felt before.

“I just know.”

~

The night passed quickly after their discussion. 

Haru remembered that he’d agreed to meet Coach Ryuuji for dinner in the cafeteria to break down a little more practically the “back to basics” approach that he’d wanted Haru to take. So they returned, Rin feeling increasingly aware of Haru’s every motion, his face a permanent soft shade of pink.

Rin gave input when he could -- he’d been watching Haru swim for most of his life, after all. He even ratted Haru out to his coach for certain lazy tendencies, including Haru’s desire to sustain the underwater glide of the dive for longer than necessary, simply because it felt good.

Ryuuji laughed, glancing from one of them to the other.

“You two are good for each other. Reminds me of...ahh. Never mind. That guy was always simply annoying.”

Rin and Haru exchanged amused glances.

After a set of evening stretches in the gym, they headed back to Haru’s room.

~

“There’s only one bed, and it’s small,” Haru said calmly. 

Rin stood still for a moment, his face sinking even more into the permanent red glow that he was sure he’d had all evening. This situation seemed extremely familiar, but the bed was more intimate than last time.

“I’ll go bathe first, then,” Haru said, voice still calm, finding and laying out a towel for Rin.

Haru didn’t seem flustered at all, and Rin, sitting and waiting, wondered yet again if Haru really did mean “swim” when he said “love.”

They still hadn’t even kissed, and it was the strangest thing to be sitting there, nervously waiting for Haru just like a lover. No, exactly like a lover.

They traded places for the shower, and when Rin emerged, he saw Haru lying on his side in bed with his back against the wall, propped up on one arm, awaiting him.

Haru was wearing the yellow Iwatobi-chan shirt, soft and worn now, comfortable for sleeping.

Rin was similarly clad, but Haru’s shirt fit tightly over his larger torso. Their shapes were vastly different, nowadays, and Rin realized that he felt a sudden burning curiosity to map every single way their bodies were different.

Even if the idea of looking at Haru in that way was new, it also felt like an emotion he’d been familiar with forever. It was the same passion they’d had as kids, matured.

“As nice as it is to watch you, I’d rather hold you,” Haru said.

Rin blinked. “So you really do say those ridiculous lines you were texting me out loud.”

“You taught me about romance, after all,” Haru said, pulling down the blanket so that Rin could climb in.

The fit was tight, but Rin immediately nestled against a warm body, lying on his back looking up as Haru leaned over him.

 _Male_ , some part of Rin screamed, lying there. _We’re both men._

But their mouths fit together like a dream, and a moment later Rin forgot his qualms and gathered Haru into his arms, pulling their bodies tight.

Rin heard Haru make a contented, breathless noise.

“What was that?” Rin paused, trying to calm his nerves. 

His body was singing. Haru pressed against him in a sinuous, happy slide.

“I said, I’m home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Uchiage Hanabi by Kenshi Yonezu.


End file.
